On February 3, 2018 I declared myself a victor in the 21-day Complaint Free challenge. By August I had started the challenge again, feeling I had lapsed. According to the entries on this very blog, I lasted seven days on my second attempt before going curiously silent about the whole thing.
Here we are more than two years after my initial success, in the middle of a global pandemic, a recession caused by the same, worldwide protests over police brutality and Donald Trump is President of the United States. If ever there was a time where it felt A-OK to complain, 2020 would seem to be that time. It’s also a great time to challenge myself to rise above the urge to complain, to stay positive and focus on the good, to find solutions instead of just griping about things, especially things I can change.
And so I have donned my purple Complaint Free bracelet again. For the first day I think I got through okay. If I complained to someone else (and I did ask some people to verify if I had), it was too subtle to notice, or I just wasn’t paying enough attention. While either is possible, I think I came through with a legit victory for the day.
The toughest part, as before, will be refraining from sarcasm, or at least sarcasm in the form of “complaining with humor”, which is very close to all sarcasm.
I completed the initial challenge very quickly–the book notes it takes most people 8-10 months to hit 21 consecutive days of no complaints–so there was always that nagging doubt I had complained a few times and not noticed it. We’ll see if I get similar results this time.
I’ll report back in 8-10 months (ho ho).
